It means they are officially part of the team but don't play in an official game in their freshman year in order to preserve another/extra year of eligibility.

Therefore, they could end up a five year student, hence the term "Fifth Year Senior". It basically gives them a chance to get up to speed with the team without sacrificing a year of eligibility on the learning curve of collegiate sports.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshirt_(c...

red shirt mean when a player sit out a year because of injury or the dept chart.a want to stay withthe team roster for 4 or 5 yrs.

if you choose to red shirt a player. he goes to college practices with the team and can dress out for games. however the moment he goes into a game he loses red shirt status and becomes a true freshman. the following year he becomes a red shirt freshman, red shirt sophomor and so on.
If a play gets injured before the season he can be redshirted and have an extra year of eligibility

I thought "red shirt" meant they were backups. Players who practiced and didn't play.

In high school we had "red shirt" and they lined up against the starters in practice. i have always assumed it meant the same in NCAA

Redshirt is a term used in American college athletics. Typically, four years of academic classes are required to obtain a bachelor's degree at an American college or university. A student's sport eligibility is based on this timetable. Therefore, a student-athlete may only represent a school in any given sport for a total of four seasons. However, a student-athlete may opt to "Redshirt" for one year. "Redshirting" allows the student-athlete to spread those four years of eligibility over five years. In a "redshirt" year, a student-athlete may attend classes at the college/university and practice with an athletic team, however he or she may not appear in games. Using this mechanism, a student-athlete has up to five academic years to use the four years of eligibility, thus creating the phenomenon of "Fifth Year Seniors".

it means he stands the best chance of being a contestant on "Dancing with the Stars"